Monday Night Football Is A Great Test For Jalen Hurts
I know what you’re thinking, QB’s don’t play against each other, they play against the other teams defense. It’s a team game and W’s and L’s are not a QB stat….and you’re right. Except great QB’s have to “out duel” other great QB’s, or simply just out score them sometimes. I know, mind blowing stuff that you come to this website for, written by Captain Obvious. But it’s reality. Jalen Hurts has had a very successful start to his career and will be a starter in the NFL for a long time. That much is established. What’s still to be determined is how high his ceiling can go and now with almost 25 games under his belt is the time to start taking that next step. What can go a long way to there in my personal opinion is to start beating some QB’s that are better than him. When you look at the body of work of Jalen and simply break it down to QB’s he’s beaten and QB’s he’s lost to, it’s pretty jarring. Here they are… .
QB’s Jalen’s beaten
Matt Ryan / Sam D’Arnold / Jared Goff (2 times) / Teddy Bridgewater / Trevor Siemian / Garrett Gilbert / Mike Glennon & Jake Fromm (same game, gross NYG) / Tyler Heinecke / Taysom Hill
QB’s who’ve beaten Jalen
Jimmy G / Dak Prescott (2 times) / Tom Brady (2 times) / Patrick Mahomes / Derek Carr / Justin Herbert / Daniel Jones / Alex Smith / Andy Dalton / Kyler Murray
When you see it in print, it’s not a great feeling as an Eagles fan. Part of it was his first four games his rookie year when he took over for Wentz, part was last year in his first full year as a starter and obviously last week’s victory over the Lions in Detroit. While his body of work has been impressive, he’s yet to really beat a QB that’s better than him. Matt Ryan is at the end of his career and while his career’s been better than Hurts, at present time (last year), Hurts is better. The remainder of the list that he’s beaten is a pretty gross display of QB names in this league.
Then you look at the QB’s that have beaten Jalen Hurts led Eagles teams and well, they’re mostly the cream of the crop. Now there’s context to all stats and information and the fair context here is that the Eagles defense mostly stunk last year and Gannon’s defenses allowed record setting completion percentage days from those great QB’s. And that list does include 3 of the top 10 QB’s in this league but at some point Hurts is going to have to lead his team over these teams. The Eagles have the most money in the NFL invested in defense this year so the excuses are starting to run out. There’s no excuses to not beat some Dak’s and Carr’s and Murray’s of the league.
Tonight could be a great step for Jalen and the Eagles to beat an opposition who’s QB is better. As always, Go Birds.
